Let’s talk about NOT pulling and why we’re steering away from using that word altogether in swimming terms. Listen as we break down why using the term “pull” can lead to incorrect movements and injury, and what we’re calling it instead and why.
#11: - Butterfly Arms Part 2
We’re back with the second half of our butterfly talk! Talking about additional concepts of when to add and work on your breath, proper breath technique, and when to work on your kick.
#10 - Teaching & Learning The Skill/Sport of Swimming
A big welcome to one of our closest friends in the swimming world, COO of US Masters Swimming (USMS), Bill Brenner! Listen in as Dominic talks with Bill about the process of teaching and learning the sport/skill of swimming. Bill is the creator of USMS’s certification classes, and he and Dominic travel around the US teaching people how to be swim coaches and how to be USMS Certified learn-to-swim instructors.
#9 - Butterfly Arms
The movement of your arms in butterfly is what propels you through the water. How? And what are the movements you need to be making to keep yourself injury free and your stroke strong? Listen to find out!
#8 - Drafting and Donuts
FINALLY I get to talk about food! Except, not really, but at least the name of a food is in the title, right? This episode talks about drafting in swimming and how it can be achieved in the pool and the open water. What is drafting? I’ve been swimming for over 26 years and it took me about half that time to find out, yikes. But fear not, we’re here to inform you! Chances are you’ve drafted before and just haven’t realized it. And more than likely you’ve been drafted off of, which we also touch base on. This is a great skill to help you improve in your open water races without having to do any extra training, as well as helps you better understand the mechanics of how to make the best of your situation in crowded waters.
#7 - Pacing in Swimming
What is pacing? I can tell you one thing, I definitely had ZERO CLUE as to what it was when I was younger. Learning about it now I wish I had been better informed (my fault? my coach’s fault? nobody knows…probably mine) so I could have trained better. But that’s exactly why we’re talking about it, so you can avoid my terrible past and train better now! Listen as we explain what pace work is, how to best achieve it, why it’s important in pool and open water swimming, and how best to implement it into your training.
#6 - Sighting in Open Water Swimming
Open water swimming is a wild beast to tame, and you won’t always be successful in your attempts. Why? Because there are so many unknowns that you can never fully prepare for. But something you can always do? Sight in order to make sure you know where you’re going, what’s ahead of you, and how to best prepare for the conditions you’re swimming through without veering off course and adding 758432 minutes to your time. Listen as we talk about why sighting is crucial to open water swimming success, how to go about it, and specific drills that work on perfecting this swimming skill.
#5 - Freestyle Recovery and the Propulsive Phase
When working on your freestyle swim the things that go on above the water can sometimes fall to the wayside. But they shouldn’t! Your freestyle recovery - the part of your stroke after you’ve finishing your propulsive phase and are bringing your arm back around to enter the water and start your catch - has just as much impact on your freestyle efficiency as what’s going on under the water after your hand has entered. Two-fold, the propulsive phase - from the start of your catch all the way through to the finish of your stroke - is the key component to your efficiency, power, AND stability. Let’s see why!
#4 - The Freestyle Breath
No matter whether you’ve been swimming since you popped out of the womb or if you started later in life, everyone needs to work on their breathing in freestyle. The timing, head position, where your eyes are looking, the amount of air you take in, even the position of your head while you’re turning to breathe, are all things that can fall out of line the more comfortable you get in the water with other aspects of your stroke. Let’s take a step back and see what we need to be focusing on to have a refresher course in a proper freestyle breath.
#3 - Body/Hip Rotation in Freestyle
It might not seem like it, but your hips are an integral part of your freestyle. Proper rotation and movement affect the timing of your kick, catch, propulsive phase, AND recovery. If the rotation of your hips is off, too much, or too little, all of those other parts of your stroke are affected and can be thrown out of whack. How do we work to have proper hip rotation? Let’s find out!
#2 - The Freestyle Kick
Back at it again with the freestyle technique talk. Today we discuss kicking in freestyle and what you want to avoid in order to help keep your stroke efficient and streamline.
#1 - Body Posture in Freestyle
Our first episode of Swim Out of the Box is here! We’re talking all about body posture in freestyle. The good, the bad, the okay, and everything in between. Dominic and Evan discuss all the things you need to know how to work towards making your body posture more on the good side of things, improve your efficiency, and support having a proper streamline as you swim through the water.
